Leisure sailing has never been more affordable and comfortable, as designers have refined composite construction techniques to craft sailboats with ever more spacious and luxurious cabins.
But as cabin headroom has grown, so too has freeboard, the height of the main deck over the waterline. Higher freeboard is problematic in only one significant way; it can be much harder to climb aboard.
From floating dock to main deck, many larger sailboats require a climb of over 30 inches, the functional equivalent of stepping onto a moving dining room table. While this is presumably effortless for the captain and experienced crew, with a pitching deck and a water gap, this climb may be a daunting task for younger, older, or less athletic passengers.
Additionally, lifelines, a system of wire rope railings and stanchions installed on most sailboats, tend to impede boarding. To avoid this problem, most boat designers now incorporate one reinforced gate stanchion on each side of the boat, allowing lifelines to be selectively opened for passenger boarding, while maintaining full function of all other lifelines. Gate stanchions are generally crafted from stainless steel tubing, and are commonly shaped like a lower case “h”, or an inverted upper case “U,” to offer longitudinal support when the lifeline gate is opened.
In brief, the present invention is a combination gate stanchion and boarding ladder assembly, ideal for use on sailboats. The ladder is folded and stowed within the gate stanchion, so as to be unobtrusive to normal sailboat function. The invention offers the advantages of a permanent and secure, folding boarding ladder, mounted directly adjacent the lifeline gate, deployable for docking and casting off, and immediately accessible from deck or dock.
While there is a considerable body of prior art for boarding aids, discussed below, very few relate to this invention. Prior art reveals no boat stanchion that integrates a ladder, no ladder attached to a stanchion, and no ladder stowable within a stanchion.